BR  1601  .A33  1834 

An  address  to  the  public  o] 
religious  intolerance  and 


ip  Yr/0Ae.V-^re5An-V(7"vV\orv. 


RESS   TO   THE   PUBLIC, 

Religious  Intolerance  and  Persecution. 


No,  S, 


uousque  tandem  nbutere  patiuntia  nostra,''' Millere  ? 


III.  The  Church  of  England. 

Henry  VIII.  was  the  father  of  the  Reformation  in  England.  The 
atrocious  wickedness  of  his  career,  the  various  changes  of  his  re- 
ligion, and  the  changes  which  he  enforced  on  his  subjects  by  acts  of 
a  pliant,  servile  jjarlianient,  are  too  well  known  to  the  merest  sciolist 
in  history,  to  require  detail. 

The  creed,  or  confession  of  faith,  was  new-modelled  under  Ed- 
ward, and  finally  and  lastingly  arranged  by  Queen  Elizabeth. 

It  is  well  known  that  Henry  VIII.  decreed  burning  against  Ana- 
baptists for  denying  the  eflicacy  of  infant  baptism — and  against 
those  who  denied  the  real  presence,  and  decapitation  against  those 
who  denied  his  supremacy.* 

I  single  out  a  few  cases  under  these  three  reigns,  to  display 
the  infuriate  spirit  that  prevailed  among  the  English  reformers.  And 
first,  that  of  the  interesting  Anne  Ascue,  who  for  "dogmatizing  on 
the  real  presence,"  was  so  violently  racked,  that  according  to  the 
words  of  Hume,  'her  body  teas  almost  torn  asunder;"  and  persisting 
in  her  religious  opinions,  ''she  was  condemned  to  be  burned  alive;  and 
being  so  dislocated  by  the  rack,  that  she  coidd  not  stand,  she  teas  car- 
ried to  the  stake  in  a  chair.  Together  with  her  were  conducted  N. 
Belenien,  a  priest,  J.  Lassels,  of  the  king's  household,  and  J. 
Adams,  a  tatior,  who  had  been  condemned  for  the  same  crime  to  the 
same  punishment!"     Hume's  England,  Phil.  Edition,  Vol.  II.  p.  443. 

Here  are  four  miserable  victims  offered  up  to  the  Moloch  of  Per- 
secution, by  the  ancestors  of  those  men  who  have  the  shameless  ef- 
frontery to  cant,  and  whine,  and  turn  up  the  whites  6f  their  eyes, 
deploring  the  wickedness  of  the  blood-thirsty  Roman  Catholics  for 
their  persecutions;  and  thanking  God  that  they  are  not  like  those 
cruel,  idolatrous  Papists;  as  if  their  ancestors  were  wholly  guiltless  of 
the  hideous  crime ! 

Let  me  add  the  burning  of  Jane  Bocher,  under  Edward  VI.  at  the 
instigation  and  by  the  importunity  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  and  the 
numberless  hangings,  drawings,  and  quarterings  of  priests,  under 
Elizabeth.  There  were  223  Catholics  executed  for  their  religion  in 
this  reign. 

Would  it  not  excite  the  most  just  indignation,  were  these  atrocious 
crimes  charged  to  the  account  of  the  Church  of  England  of  the  pre- 
sent day  !  But  is  not  that  precisely  the  shameful,  unprincipled,  and 
outrageous  course  pursued  with  the  Roman  Catholics? 


I  cited  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller  to  the  public  bar  of  this  nation,  to 
prove  the  truth  of  the  following  gross  accusations,  by  any  Roman 

*  During  the  reign  of  this  monster,  there  were  eighty  Roman  Catholics  executed 
for  denying  his  supremacy;  among  the  rest,  the  illustrious  Chancellor  More  and 
the  pious  Bishop  Fisher.  Some  doubts,  expressed  by  Catharine  Parr,  one  of  his 
wives,  brought  her  neck  in  danger;  but  by  giving  up  her  doitbts,  and  soothing  the 
ruffian,  she  escaped,  and  survived  him. 


«  i 


18 

Catholic  book  of  authority,  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
or  part  of  the  Roman  Catholic  system,  or  else  to  acknowledge  him- 
self a  calumniator. 

1st.  That  the  Pope  can  change  the  essential  nature  of  moral  good  and  evil. 
2d.  That  he  can  maiie,  by  his  fiat,  sin  to  be  holiness,  and  holiness  sin. 
3d.  That  he  can  dispense  with  all  laws,  human  and  divine. 
4lh.  That  all  kinds  of  deceptions,  frauds,  and  lying,  are  justifiable  when  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  good  of  the  church  require  them. 

This  was  a  fair  challenge;  and  how  has  he  met  it?  as  a  gentle- 
man, a  clergyman,  or  a  logician?  Has  he  made  the  slightest  attempt 
to  prove  his  assertions?  Has  he  referred  to  any  Roman  Catholic 
book  of  authority  in  support  of  them?  No  such  thing.  If  he  had, 
it  would  have  been  unsuccessful.  He  has  merely  reiterated  his  ca- 
lumnious charges,  arid  adds — 

"All  this  I  have  said,  [his  ipse  dixit  is  doubtless  sufficient]  and  on  being  called 
on  to  reviev?  it,  I  am  willing  to  say  it  again,  Cthis  is,  to  be  sure,  irrefragable  proof,] 
because  I  am  just  as  well  persuaded  that  it  is  strictly  correct,  [this  may  suffice  for 
him,  but  will  not  satisfy  the  public,]  as  I  am  that  there  were  such  men  as  Luther 
and  Tetzel,  or  that  Charles  I.  of  England  was  brought  to  the  block.'' 

To  this  the  Doctor  adds  the  worn-out,  threadbare,  and  miserable 
slang  of  "the  man  of  sin,"  and  "son  of  perdition."     He  forgot,  I 

presume,  the  of  Babylon,  who  would  have  made  a  capital 

pendent  to  the  "  man  of  sin." 

He  refers  to  Mosheim,  Tillotson,  &c.,  who  make  the  same  decla- 
rations. But  does  he  pretend  that  this  reference  will  satisfy  the  pub- 
lic? It  is  no  time  of  day  to  take  the  ipse  dixit  of  any  man,  how 
high  or  exalted  soever,  on  a  point  of  such  importance,  and  on  which 
such  inveterate  prejudices  prevail.  If  Mosheim,  or  the  others,  have 
proved  by  proper  authorities  what  they  have  asserted,  then  the  Doc- 
tor's task  is  easy.  He  has  only  to  copy  their  proofs,  whatever  they 
may  be,  and  let  the  public  judge  of  their  validity.  But  if  they,  like 
him,  have  dealt  in  assertions  without  proof,  he  "  takes  nothing  by 
his  motion."  Their  mere  assertion  will  not  weigh  a  feather  in  the 
scale.     He  must,  in  that  case,  adduce  his  own  proofs  himself. 

Let  it  be  remembered,  that  I  confined  my  challenge  to  the  four 
specific  points  above  quoted.  When  he  has  proved  them,  or  ac- 
knowledged that  he  can  adduce  no  proof,  then  the  remainder  may  be 
taken  up;  but  not  till  then  ;  this  is  a  sine  qua  non.  I  take  the  liberty, 
however,  to  add  another  challenge,  and  defy  him  to  produce,  in  the 
wide  range  of  European  history,  for  a  hundred  years,  or  in  the  history 
of  this  country  from  its  first  settlement,  a  single,  clear,  applicable, 
well-attested  fact,  to  warrant  the  odious  and  calumnious  charges  he 
has  adduced ;  and  surely,  even  supposing  for  a  moment,  that  in  an- 
terior periods,  those  principles  and  practices  which  he  alleges,  had 
prevailed,  one,  two,  or  three  centuries  of  innocence  might  be  pleaded 
in  bar  of  condemnation  for  ancestral  iniquity. 

It  is  truly  ludicrous  for  this  reverend  gentleman  to  complain  of 
"  the  coarse  invectives  of  the  champion  of  Romanism."  To  have 
made  this  complaint  after  his  coarse  and  outrageous  attack,  not 
merely  on  the  Roman  Catholics  of  this  country,  probably  500.000 
in  number,  but  upon  the  whole  body,  throughout  the  globe,  com- 
prising 80,000,000  of  people,  as  "foes  of  God  and  man,"  and  as 
"  requiring  to  be  watched  as  highwaymen  and  assassins  in  the  dark," 
requires  a  degree  of  mental  delusion  not  often  met  with.  It  is  pre- 
cisely as  if  a  man  who  had  assailed  another  with  a  mace,  were  to 


19 

exclaim  against  the  injustice  of  being  met  in  return  with  a  hickory 
stick;  for  Dr.  Miller's  assault  and  my  retort,  bear  about  the  same 
proportion  to  each  other. 

When  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller  assailed  the  Roman  Catholics  as  "  foes 
of  God  and  man,"  and  as  requiring  "to  be  watched  as  highwaymen 
or  assassins  in  the  dark,"  he  made  no  exception,  no  qualification. 
It  was  a  sweeping  denunciation,  from  which  no  individual  of  the 
great  body  could  escape.  He  now  comes  forward  with  an  epheme- 
ral newspaper  qualification,  which  removes  a  portion  of  the  venom 
of  his  original  declaration;  a  qualification,  which,  from  the  nature 
of  the  vehicle  in  which  it  appears,  will  perish  and  be  forgotten  in  a 
week,  while  the  wholesale  condemnation  will  survive  the  author, 
and  probably  produce  deleterious  consequences  a  century  hence. 
He  says — 

"  I  take  for  granted  that  every  candid  reader  of  the  '  Introductory  Essay'  will  un- 
derstand me  as  poiniing,  in  all  the  unfavorable  representations  which  it  makes,  at 
the  Roman  Catholic  system,  or  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  as  a  general  body,  and 
not  to  all  its  individual  adherents." 

This  may  be  now  understood — but  until  now  it  was  neither  ex- 
pressed nor  understood.  There  was,  I  repeat,  no  qualification,  ex- 
ception, or  limitation  whatever,  of  the  wholesale  calumnious  attack, 
of  which,  I  trust,  those  who  have  any  regard  for  the  Doctor's  charac- 
ter, will  feel  ashamed. 

"If,"  says  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller,  "the  Romish  church,  for  more  than  ten  centu- 
ries, has  been  consigning  millions  [!.' !]  of  human  beings  to  the  most  heartless  and 
cruel  butchery  for  daring  to  follow  the  dictates  of  conscience,"  &c. 

On  what  a  large  scale  the  Doctor  calculates !  Millions  !  millions  1 
What  an  important  and  conclusive  word  is  if,  to  build  an  argument 
on  !  Let  me  in  return  ask,  if  this  insinuation  be,  as  it  really  is,  a 
most  extravagant  and  hyperbolical  and  Munchausen  exaggeration, 
what  becomes  of  the  Doctor's  if,  and  the  superstructure  resting  on 
such  a  slender  foundation  1 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  average  annual  number  of  persons 
punished  with  death  by  the  Roman  Catholics  on  account  of  their 
religion,  from  the  first  perpetration  of  the  heinous  crime,  does  not 
greatly,  if  at  all,  exceed  the  number  shot  down,  and  otherwise  cruelly 
punished  by  fines,  forfeitures,  tortures  by  thumbikins,  the  carpenter's 
daughter,  incarceration  and  exile,  in  one  year,  in  Scotland,  under 
the  administration  of  Lord  Lauderdale.*  So  much  for  the  Reverend 
Doctor's  millions  ! ! ! 

In  the  course  of  my  strictures  on  the  atrocious  spirit  of  persecu- 
tion, I  adduced  various  instances  of  its  exercise  by  different  denomi- 
nations of  Christians,  and  among  the  rest,  as  I  was  called  upon  by 
fairness  and  candor,  I  instanced  cases  in  which  it  was  perpetrated 
by  Roman  Catholics.  Dr.  Miller  expresses  his  astonishment  at  this 
ingenuous  avowal,  and  declares  that — 

"No  part  of  the  Catholic  Layman's  angry  paper  has  filled  me  with  more  surprise 
than  the  suicidal,  but  apparently  inadvertent  admissions  of  the  spirit  of  the  Church 
ofRome." 

Shall  we  ascribe  to  superannuation,  or  to  the  narrowness  of  mind 
that  eternally  accompanies  a  blind  and  bigoted  devotion  to  party, 
whether  in  relation  to  politics  or  religion,  that  hallucination  which 
regards  this  proceeding  as  "  suicidal,"  or  as  the  result  of  "  inadvert- 

*  See  Laing's  History  of  Scotland,  passim. 


20 

ence?"  It  is  far,  very  far  indeed,  from  "suicidal,"  and  equally  re- 
mote from  "  inadvertence."  It  was  the  result  of  a  conviction  that 
"  honesty  is  the  best  policy;"  and  that  when  I  arraigned  the  persecu- 
ting spirit  of  Calvin,  Knox,  Henry  VIII.,  Elizabeth  and  Lord 
Lauderdale,  it  was  due  to  the  honorable  cause  of  truth,  to  acknowl- 
edge that  Roman  Catholics  had  perpetrated  the  odious  crime.* 

Would  to  God  that  Dr.  Miller  and  his  friends  were  actuated  by 
that  spirit  which  he  styles  "  suicidal;"  and  that  they  would  honestly 
avow  in  their  publications  the  horrible  persecutions  of  the  Anabap- 
tists and  Roman  Catholics  in  England,  the  bloodthirsty  and  murder- 
ous persecutions  of  the  Cameronians  in  Scotland,  the  drownings  of  the 
Anabaptists  in  Switzerland,  the  infuriate  persecutions  of  the  Armini- 
ans  ill  Holland,  and,  in  a  word,  the  persecutions  carried  on  by  the  re- 
formers, more  especially  the  Calvinists,  wherever  they  had  power, 
even  in  this  country.  Then  the  force  of  truth  would  compel  them 
to  acknowledge  that  persecution  is  not  the  child  of  any  one  religion 
more  than  another;  but  is  the  besetting  sin  of  bad  men  possessed 
of  power,  who,  whether  in  politics  or  religion,  are  prone  to  oppress 
and  crush  their  fellow  men  who  differ  from  them  in  opinion. 

"  Man,  proud  man, 
Drest  in  a  little  brief  authority  ; 
JMost  ignorant  of  wliat  lie's  most  assur'd, 
Plays  such  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heav'n, 
As  make  e'en  angels  weep." 

One  sermon,  or  essay,  or  pamphlet  of  this  description,  would  do 
more  service  to  society  than  a  thoas?ind  "  introductory  essays,"  or 
histories  of  Popery,  or  attacks  on  Quakerism.  It  would  teach  men 
the  holy  doctrine  of  mutual  forgiveness,  as  they  have  been  mutual  of- 
fenders ;  and  would  entitle  the  speaker  or  writer  to  the  benediction 
pronounced  by  the  founder  of  their  religion  on  such  conduct: — 
"Blessed  are  the  peace-makers  .-  for  they  shall  be  called  the  children  of  God." 
If  "  the  peace-makers"  be  deservedly  styled  "the  children  of  God," 
are  not  the  sowers  of  strife  and  discord  and  hatred,  and  all  the  other 
detestable  passions  of  our  nature,  children  of  the  devil? 

A  CATHOLIC  LAYMAN. 

Philadelphia,  Sept.  15,  1834. 

*  To  my  surprise,  some  Roman  Catholics  have  been  dissatisfied  with  my  second 
number,  on  account  of  the  "  suicidal"  statements,  to  use  the  language  of  Dr.  Mil- 
ler, of  Catholic  persecutions  which  it  contains.  I  am  persuaded  they  take  a  very 
incorrect  view  of  the  subject.  I  believe  th&t  number  to  be  one  of  the  best  of  the 
series.  A  fair  and  candid  admission  of  the  errors  of  your  own  pariy,  goes  far  to 
secure  you  credit  in  detailing  the  errors  of  your  antagonists.  So  that  even  if  I  did 
not  scorn  the  suppressio  veri,  as  much  as  the  suggestio  falsi,  mere  policy  would  dic- 
tate the  course  pursued.  But  the  reader  may  rest  assured,  that  far  higher  motives 
have  dictated  the  fair  avowal  of  Roman  Catholic  persecutions. 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  PUBLIC. 

On  Religious  Intolerance  and  Persecution. 


No.  6. 


'•  Live  in  peace;  and  the  God  of  all  peace  shall  be  xmlh  you." — 2  Cor.  xiii.  11. 

IV.  Calvinists. 

Having,  as  I  hope,  fully  proved  that  the  conduct  of  the  early  bap- 
tists, the  rnethodists,  and  the  Church  of  England  protestants,  ought 
to  induce  those  of  the  present  day  to  observe  a  profound  and  prudent 
silence  with  regard  to  any  aberrations,  real  or  supposed,  of  the  an- 
cestors of  the  Roman  Catholics,  I  proceed  to  perform  the  same  ser- 
vice for  the  Calvinists  and  Lutherans,  and  shall  commence  with  Cal- 
vin and  John  Knox. 

These  reformers  were  men  of  extreme  rigour  and  austerity — and 
in  their  horror  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  regarded  the  re- 
tention by  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  of  any  of  the  forms  or 
ceremonies,  or  the  clerical  dresses,  of  the  former,  as  approaching  to 
idolatry,  and  the  whole  service  as  "  an  ill-disguised  mass."  Both  of 
them  clearly  and  unequivocally  advocated  capital  punishments  for 
heresy.  Their  descendants,  however,  mirabile  dictit,  are  the  most 
violent  and  unappeasable  enemies  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  chiefly 
on  account  of  the  persecutions  of  the  latter,  regardless  of  the  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  their  own  founders  ! ! 

That  Calvin  was  the  instigator  of  the  apprehension  of  Servetus, 
and  that  he  was  in  favor  of  his  being  capitally  punished,  stands  re- 
corded in  his  private  letters  to  his  friends.  (1)  While  he  (Serve- 
tus) was  in  prison,  Calvin  expressed  a  hope  that  he  would. soon  suffer 
his  punishment,  (2)  which  was  death.  He  tells  us,  it  is  true,  that 
he  was  opposed  to  the  mode  of  punishment  in  his  case.  (3)  But 
that  does  not  affect  the  question  in  the  least. 

Whether  an  unfortunate  heretic,  or  schismatic,  is  simply  hanged, 
roasted  alive,  or  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered,  m.akes  some  differ- 
ence as  to  the  sufferings  of  the  wretched  victim;  but  none  as  to  the 
execrable  spirit  of  persecution. 

These  facts  ought  forever  to  arrest  the  torrent  of  abuse  lavished  on 
the  Roman  Catholics  for  persecution  ;  for  I  repeat,  and  it  can  never 
be  repeated  too  often,  that  if  it  were  lawful,  just,  and  proper,  to  put 
Servetus  to  death,  because  his  religious  opinions  differed  from  those 
of  the  ruling  powers  of  Geneva,  which  of  course  those  powers  re- 

1.  "  He  (Servetus)  was  cast  into  prison,  wiience  he  escaped,  I  know  not  how  ; 
and  was  wandering  about  Italy  for  about  four  months.  At  length,  having,  under 
evil  auspices,  come  hither,  he  was  arrested,  at  my  instigation,  by  one  of  our  syn- 
dics, and  thrown  into  prison." — Calvin  to  Snlzerius.  (7) 

2.  "  The  author  of  this  blasphemy  is  held  in  prison  by  our  magistrates,  and  soon, 
I  hope,  to  suffer  his  punishment." — Calvin  to  the  pastors  of  the  church  at  Frank- 
fort. (8) 

3.  "  To-morrow  he  will  be  taken  to  e.xecution.  We  have  laboured  to  change 
THE  KIND  of  DEATH.  Why  we  failed  of  success,  we  shall  defer  till  we  see  you." 
—Calvin  to  Farrell.  (9) 

(7)  "  Re  yero  patefacta,  in  carcerem  est  conjectus.  Unde,  nescio  quomodo,  elap- 
sus,  per  Italiam  erravit  fere  quatuor  menses.  Tandem  hue,  malis  auspiciis,  appul- 
sum,  unus  ex  syndicis,  me  auctore,  in  carcerem  ducijussit." — Calvini  Epistolaeet 
Responsa,  Hanovia;  1.597,  p.  294. 

(8)  "  Auctor  ipse  lenetur  in  carcere,  a  magistrata  nostro,  etpropediem,  ut  spero, 
daturus  est  pimas." — Idem  290. 

(9)  "  Cras  ad  supplicium  ducetur.  Genus  mortis  conati  sumus  mutare,  sed  frus- 
tra.      Cur  nihil  profecerimus,  coram  narrandum  difFero." — Idem  304. 

E 


22 

garded  as  the  only  true  religion,  then  was  it  lawful  for  Nero,  Diode- 
sian,  Trajan — the  Duke  of  Alva — Henry  VIII. — Queen  Mary  and 
Q,ueen  Elizabeth,  to  persecute  "  to  the  death"  dissenters  from  their 
forms  of  worship. 

All  the  leading  reformers  decidedly  approved  of  the  death  of  Ser- 
vetus.  I  annex  in  a  note,  the  testimony  on  this  subject  of  three  conspi- 
cuous characters — Bucer,  (4)  Bullinger  (5)  and  Melancthon.  (6) 

I  presume  I  have  quoted  enough  of,  and  from,  Calvin  and  other 
principal  continental  reformers,  to  show  that  they  were  decidedly  in 
favour  of  capital  punishments  for  religious  opinions. 

I  now  proceed  to  take  a  cursory  view  of  the  doctrines  of  John 
Knox,  which  ought  imperiously  to  impose  silence  on  the  Presbyte- 
rians on  this  revolting  subject.  He  clearly  and  explicitly  advocates 
capital  punishment,  not  merely  of"  idolatrous  Papists,"  but  of  those 
guilty  of  "  blasphemy,  and  other  crimes  pertaining  to  the  majesty  of 
God,"  of  which  the  chief  magistrates  or  rulers  were  doubtless  to  be 
the  judges. 

"The  punishment  of  such  crimes  as  idolatry,  blasphemy,  and  others  that  touch  the 
majesty  of  God,  does  not  belong  to  the  Kings  and  chief  rulers  only,  but  to  the 
WHOLE  body  of  the  people,  and  every  member  of  the  same." — Appellation  annexed  to 
Knox's  History  of  the  Reformation,  p.  22. 

"  Ye  are  bound  to  remote  from  honor,  and  to  punish  wiih  death,  (if  the  crime 
so  require,)  such  as  deceive  the  people,  or  defraud  them  of  that  food  of  their  souls, 
I  mean  God's  lively  word."' — Idem.  p.  10. 

"  /(  is  not  only  lawful  to  punish  to  the  death,  such  as  labor  to  subvert  the  true  reli- 
gion ;  but  the  magistrates  and  people  are  bound  to  do  so,  unless  they  will  provoke 
the  wrath  of  God  against  themselves." — Idem.  p.  25. 

It  appears  by  one  of  the  above  extracts,  that  there  are  three  de- 
scriptions of  persons  who  are  authorized  to  punish  "  even  unto  the 
death,"  the  crimes  specified. 

1.  Kings  and  rulers  of  the  people. 

2.  The  whole  body  of  the  people. 

3.  Every  member  of  the  people,  that  is,  by  fair  construction,  that 
every  member  of  the  congregation  had  a  right  to  punish  idolatry, 
blasphemy,  &c.  with  death. 

I  most  earnestly  request  all  men  of  candor  to  weigh  well  the  in- 
ferences fairly  deducible  from  these  positions  of  John  Knox.  "  The 
whole  body  of  the  people,"  and  "every  member  of  the  same,"  are  aullior- 
ized  "  to  punish  with  death  idolatry  and  blasphemy,  and  other  crimes 
that  touch  the  majesty  of  God."  According  to  this  doctrine,  not  undu- 
ly strained  beyond  its  fair  import,  the  Charlestown  mob,  as  a  portion  of 
"the  whole  people,"  were  authorized  to  put  to  death  as  "  idolaters  and 
blasphemers,"  the  superior  of  the  Convent  and  all  the  Nuns  therein. 
Hence,  instead  of  censuring  them  for  the  destruction  of  the  building, 

4.  "  Of  him,  (Servetus)  Bucer,  that  faithful^'minister  of  Christ,  of  holy  memory, 
declared  from  the  pulpit,  though  of  a  mild  disposition,  that  he  ought  to  be  torn  to 
pieces." — Calvin  to  Sulzerius.  (10) 

5.  "  In  my  opinion,  the  Geneva  Senate  has  done  right  in  capitally  punishing  a 
pertinacious  blasphemer,  not  likely  to  leave  off  his  blasphemies :  and  I  am  surprised 
that  any  person  should  censure  this  severity." — Bullinger  to  Calvin.  (11) 

6.  "I  affirm  that  your  magistrates  have  acted  justly  in  executhig  a  blasphemer 
duly  convicted." — Melancthon  to  Calvin.  (12) 

(10)  "Is  (Servetus)  est  de  quo  fidelis  Christi  minister,  et  sanctse  memoriae,  D. 
Bucer,  cum  alioqui  mansueto  esset  ingenio,  pro  suggestu  pronunciavit,  dignura  es- 
se, qui  avulsis  visceribus  discerperetur." — Idem  p.  293. 

(11)  "  Judico  etiam  senalum  Genevensem  recti  fecisse,  quodhominem  pertinacem  et 
blasphemias  non  omissurum,svstulit.  Ac  miratus  sum,  esse  qui  severitatem  illam 
improbent." — Idem  p.  400. 

(12)  "  Affirmo  etiam  vestros  magistratus  juste fecissc,  quod  hominem  blasphcmum 
re  ordine  judicata,  interfecerunt." — Idem,  p.  341. 


23 

they  are  deserving  of  high  commendation  for  their  lenity  in  warning 
these  idolatrous  females  to  take  to  flight ! 

There  is  a  large  latitude  of  construction  given  as  to  what  is  blas- 
phemy, and  the  other  crimes  that  "  touch  the  majesty  of  God."  And 
lei  it  be  observed,  that  Protestant  Episcopacy  was  regarded  as  hardly 
less  abominable  than  "popery,"  and  as  "a  subversion  of  the  true 
religion;"  as  clearly  appears  from  the  tenor  of  the  solemn  league  and 
covenant,  which  the  Calvinists  imposed  on  the  English  and  Scotch 
in  1643.  The  subscribers  "  bound  themselves  to  endeavour,  with- 
out respect  of  persons,  the  extirpation  of  popery,  prelacy,  [that  is, 
protestant  episcopacy]  superstition,  heresy,  schism  and  profane- 
ness." — Hume's  Engl.ind,  Phila.  Ed.  vol.  III.  607 

A  Calvinistic  convention,  held  contemporaneously  in  Scotland,  "in 
the  height  of  their  zeal,  ordered  every  one  to  sign  this  covenant,  mh- 
der  the  penalty  of  confiscation;  besides  tohat  farther  punishment  it 
should  please  the  ensuing  xiai-liament  to  inflict  on  the  refusers,  as  ene- 
mies to  God^  to  the  king,  and  the  hingdom." — Idem  p.  608. 

In  1645,  the  Long  Parliament,  in  which  the  Presbyterians  had 
then  the  ascendency,  passed  an  ordinance,  whereby  "  Any  person 
using  the  book  of  Common  Prayer,  forfeited  fur  the  first  offence,  five 
pounds;  for  the  second,  ten;  and  for  the  third,  suffered  imprison- 
ment." "All  Common  Prayer  Books,  in  churches  and  chapels,  were 
ordered  to  be  brought  to  the  Committee,  within  a  month,  under  the 
forfeiture  of  forty  shillings  for  each  book." — Rushworth,  vol.  6,  p.  207. 

So  much  for  Calvinistic  toleration.  With  these  damning  facts,  and 
those  in  the  preceding  pages  before  their  faces,  how  dare  the  Rev. 
Professor  of  Theology  or  his  friends,  cry  out  aloud,  and  make  the 
welkin  ring  with  their  awful  denunciations  of  Roman  Catholic  in- 
tolerance and  persecution? 

V.  Lutherans. 

I  now  proceed  to  detail  a  few  of  the  extravagant  doctrines  of  Luther, 
the  father  of  the  reformation.  By  some  of  these  doctrines,  God  is 
made  the  author  of  sin;  man,  in  some  cases,  a  slave  of  the  devil; 
fre&-will,  a  horse,  for  the  mastery  of  which,  God  and  the  devil  are 
contending.  When  the  devil  gains  the  ascendency,  the  horse  rides 
post  haste  to  hell.* 

"If  we  punish  thieves  with  the  gallows,  highwaymen  by  the  sword,  and  heretics 
by  fire,  why  should  we  not,  with  every  kind  of  arms,  attack  those  magistrates  of 
perdition,  those  Cardinals,  those  Popes,  and  all  that  sink  of  Sodom,  which  without 
end  corrupts  the  Church;  and  icash  our  hands  in  their  blood,  to  rescue  us  and  ours, 
as  from  a  most  dangerous  conflagration."  1 

"  This  is  the  highest  degree  of  faith,  to  believe  him  [God]  to  be  merciful  who 
saves  so  few,  and  damns  so  many;  to  believe  him  just,  who  by  his  own  will  renders 

1.  "  Si  fures  furca;  si  latrones  gladio  ;  si  Htereticos  igne  pleciimus,  cur  non  magis 
hos  Magistros  perditionis,  hos  Cardinales,  hos  Papas,  et  totam  istam  Romanse  So- 
domffi  coUuviem,  qusE  Ecclesiam  Dei  sine  fine  corrumpit,  omnibus  armis  impe- 
timus,  et  manus  nostras  in  sanguine  istorumlavamus,  tanquam  a  communi  et  om- 
nium periculosissimo  incendio  uos  nostrasque  hberaturi." — Opera  Lutheri  Jena 
1556,  tom  i.  p.  71  b. 

*  "  Before  commencing  the  perusal  of  these  extracts,  it  is  proper  that  the  reader 
should  be  informed  that  the  edition  cited,  was  published  at  Jena,  in  1556-7— that  it  is 
paged  only  on  the  right  hruid,  the  left  hand  pages  not  being  marked— and  there- 
fore the  reference  176,  a.  means  the  right  hand  page,  and  176,  b.  the  page  on  the 
reverse ;  and  so  of  all  the  others.  Any  person  desirous  of  collating  the  translation 
with  the  original,  may  have  access  to  the  work  itself  at  No.  116  Walnut  street,  at 
any  time  for  three  weeks  to  come,  from  7  till  11,  A.  M.,  and  from  3  to  6,  P.  M. 
As  the  subject  and  language  are  in  some  places  mystified,  and  hardly  intelligible, 
the  translation  cannot  be  literal;  but  if  there  be  errors,  it  is  believed  they  are  few 
and  unimportant. 


24 

us  necessarily  liable  to  damnation ;  so  that  it  would  seem,  according  to  Erasmus, 
that  he  delights  in  the  torments  of  the  miserable,  and  that  he  is  more  worthy  of  hatred 
than  of  love.  If  therefore  I  were  able,  by  any  means,  to  comprehend  in  what  way 
God  is  merciful  and  just,  who  displays  so  much  anger  and  injustice,  it  would  not 
be  the  work  of  faith."  2. 

"  But  in  relation  to  God,  whether  as  respects  things  appertaining  to  salvation  or 
damnation,  man  does  not  possess  free  will ;  but  is  a  captive,  subject,  and  slave 
either  oftlie  will  of  God,  or  the  will  of  the  devil."  3. 

"Although  God  does  not  cause  [make]  sin,  yet  he  does  notecase  to  create 
[human]  nature,  vitiated  by  the  abstraction  of  the  spirit;  as  if  a  carpenter  were  to 
make  statues  out  of  rotten  wood.  Thus,  God  creating  and  forming  them  of  such 
a  nature,  such  as  is  their  nature,  such  they  become."  4. 

"  Since,  therefore,  God  does  and  moves  all  in  all,  he  necessarily  moves  and  acts 
in  Satan  and  the  impious.  But  he  acts  in  them  according  to  what  they  are,  and  to 
what  he  finds  them  ;  that  is,  as  they  are  themselves  perverse  and  wicked,  and  are 
carried  along  by  that  impulse  of  divine  omnipotence,  they  perform  only  perverse 
and  wicked  actions."  5. 

"But  if  you  are  pleased  with  God  crowning  the  unworthy,  you  ought  not  to  be 
displeased  with  him  condemning  those  not  deserving  [of  condemnation  :]  If  he  is 
there  just,  why  not  just  here — there  dispensing  grace  and  mercy  to  the  unworthy; 
here  dispensnig  wrath  and  severity  to  those  not  deserving  of  them — on  both  sides 
in  excess,  and  unjust  towards  men,  but  just  and  true  towards  himself."  6. 

"  By  the  light  of  grace  it  appears  inexplicable,  why  God  condemns  him  who  can- 
not by  his  utmost  efforts  do  other  tlran  sin  and  be  culpable!  Here  the  light  of  na- 
ture and  the  light  of  grace  dictate  that  it  is  not  ttie  fault  of  unhappy  man,  but  of  an 
unjust  God;  nor  can  they  judge  othenoise  of  God, who  gratuitously  crowns  an  impious 
man  destitute  of  merits ;  and  does  not  croicn,  hut  damns  another  man,  perhaps  less,  or 
at  all  events  not  more  impious."  7. 

"I  was  extremely  desirous  to  understand  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ;  but 
was  hitherto  deterred,  not  by  any  faint-heartedness,  but  by  one  single  expression 
in  the  first  Chapter,  viz  ; — therein  is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed ;  for  1  hated 
that  word,  tlie  righteousness  of  God;  because  by  the  use  and  custom  of  all  the 
learned,  I  had  been  taught  to  understand  it  of  that  formal  and  active  righteousness, 
by  which  God  is  righteous,  and  punishes  sinners  and  the  unrighteous.  Now, 
knowing  myself,  though  I  lived  a  monk  of  an  irreproachable  life,  to  be  in  the 
sight  of  God,  a  sinner,  and  of  a  most  unquiet  conscience,  not  having  any  hopes 
of  appeasing  him  with  my  own  satisfaction,  /  did  not  love,  nay  I  hated  this 
RIGHTEOUS  God,  who  punishes  sinners;  and  with  vehement  murmuring,  if  not 
with  silent  blasphemy,  I  was  angry  with  God,  and  said,  as  if  it  were  not  enough 
for  miserable  sinners,  who  were  lost  to  all  eternity  by  original  sin,  to  suffer  all 
manner  of  calamity  by  the  law  of  the  decalogue,  unless  God  by  the  Gospel, 

2.  "  Hie  est  fidei  summus  gradus,  credere  ilium  esse  clementem,  qui  tampaucos 
salvat,  tarn  mullos  damnat;  credere  jitstum,  qui  sua  voluntate  nos  nccessario  dam- 
nabililcs  facit;  ut  videatur,  refereule  Erasmo,  delectaki  cruciatibcs  misero- 
RUM,  &,  odio  potius  quam  amore  dignus.  Si  igitur  possem  4illa  ratione  compre- 
hendere,  quomodo  is  Deus  sit  misericors  Sf  Justus,  qui  tantam  iram  Sf  iniquitatem 
ostendit,  non  esset  opus  fidei." — Idem,  torn.  iii.  p.  176.  h 

3.  "  Casterum  erga  Deum,  vel  in  rebus,  quae  pertinent  ad  salutem  vel  damnatio- 
nem,  non  habet  liberum  arbitrium,  sed  captivus,  subjectus,  &  servus  est  vel  volun- 
tatis Dei,  vel  voluntatis  Satance." — p.  178.  a 

4.  "  Licet  enim  Deus  peccatum  non  faciat,  tamen  naturam  peccato,  subtracto 
spiritu,  vitiatam,  non  cessat  formare  &  multiplicare;  tanquam  si  faber  ex  ligno 
corrupto  statuas  faciat.  Ita  qualis  est  natura,  tales  fiunt  homines,  Deo  creante 
&  formante  illos  ex  natura  tali." — p.  20-5.  a 

5.  "  Quando  ergo  Deus  omnia  in  omnibus  movet  &  agit,  necessario  movetetiam 
&  agit  in  Satana  8f  impio.  Agit  autem  in  illis  taliter,  quales  illi  sunt,  &  quales 
invenit;  hoc  est,  cum  illi  sint  aversi  &  mali,  &  rapiantur  motu  illo  divinse  orani- 
potentise,  non  nisi  aversa  «&  mala  faciunt." — p.  205.  h 

6.  "  At  si  placet  tibi  Deus  indignos  coronans,  non  debet  etiam  displicere  imme- 
ritos  damnans.  Si  illic  Justus  est,  cur  non  hie  Justus  erit?  l\\\c  gratiam  &f  mise- 
ricordiam  spargit  in  indignos ;  hie  iram  Sf  severitatem  spargit  in  immeritos,  utro- 
biqucNiMius&iNiquusapud  homines,  sed  Justus  &veraxapudseipsum. "-p.  213.  b 

7.  "  In  lumine  gratia;  est  insolubile,  quo  modo  Dens  dainnet  eum,qui  non  potest 
ullis  suis  viribus  aliud  facere,  quam  peccare  &  reus  esse.  Hie  tam  lumen  naturae 
quam  lumen  gratiae  dictant,  culpam  esse,  non  miseri  hominis  sed  iniqui  Dei- 
Nee  enim  aliud  judicare  possunt  de  Deo,  qui  hominem  impium  gratis  sine  meritis, 
coronat,  Sf  ahum  non  coronat,  sed  damnat,  forte  minus,  vel  saltern  non  magis  im- 
pium."— p.  237.  a 


25 

adds  sorrow  to  sorrow,  and  even  by  the  Gospel  threatens  us  with  his  justice 
and  anger.    Thus  did  I  rage  with  a  fretted  and  disordered  conscience."  7. 

"If  God  foresaw  that  Judas  would  be  a  traitor,  Judas  of  necessity  became  a 
traitor.  Neither  was  it  in  his  power,  uor  tiie  power  of  any  other  creature  to  do 
otherwise,  or  change  his  will."  8. 

"  The  iuimau  will  is  placed  in  the  middle  just  like  a  horse.  If  God  sits  on  him, 
he  wills  and  goes  whither  God  wills — as  the  psalmist  says:  I  am  made  a  beast 
and  always  with  thee.  If  Satan  sits  on  him,  he  wills  and  goes  whither  Satan 
wills.  Nor  is  it  in  his  power  to  make  enquiry  of  either  rider — but  the  riders  strive 
for  the  acquisition  and  possession  of  him."  9. 

Suppose  the  Lutherans  of  the  pre.sent  day  were  made  answerable 
for  all  those  extraordinary  doctrines,  and  in  spite  of  their  repeated  dis- 
claimers, that  the  charge  were  renewed  from  year  to  year,  would  not 
every  fair  and  honorable  man  cry  shame  on  those  guilty  of  the  un- 
worthy conduct?  But  I  once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  ask  is 
not  this  the  odious  course  pursued  towards  the  Roman  Catholics  ? 

Wonder  is  expressed  at  the  outrageous  proceedings  at  Charlestown. 
Thi«!  is  absurd.  Such  an  outrage  was  the  natural  effect  of  a  very 
adequate  cause.  When  probably  a  dozen  of  the  so-styled  religious 
papers  have  been  for  years  sedulously  employed  in  exciting  the 
hellish  passions  of  our  nature  against  the  Roman  Catholics,  such  a 
result  was  to  be  expected.  Man  is  an  inflammable  animal.  He  is 
easily  excited,  especially  to  mischief.  When  once,  by  the  instigation 
of  those  whom  he  regards  as  oracles,  let  loose  from  the  bonds  of 
religion  and  law,  his  fury  is  demoniac,  and  mocks  at  the  dictates  of 
reason  and  justice.  History  is  full  of  examples  of  the  tremendous 
results. 

And  the  outrage  is  indirectly  recommended  by  the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith,  as  declared  in  the  exposition  of  that  document 
by  Fisher  and  Erskine,  in  which  scripture  is  quoted  to  justify  the 
destruction  of  Roman  Catholic  altars  and  images. 

If  it  was  right  and  proper  to  destroy  the  Roman  Catholic  altars 
and  their  furniture  in  1650,  it  is  certainly  equally  right  and  proper 
to  do  so  now;  and  the  culprits,  it  thus  appears,  can  appeal  to  high 
authority  for  their  outrageous  proceedings. 

7.  "Miro  certo  ardore  captus 'ueram,  cognoscendi  Pauli,  in  Epistola  ad  Rom. 
Sed  obstiterat  hactenus,  non  frigidus  circum  praecordia  sanguis,  sed  unicuni 
vocabulum,  quod  est,  "  Justicia  Dei  revelatur  in  illo."  Oderam  enim  vocabuluni 
istud,  "  Justicia  Dei ;"  quod  usu  et  consuetudine  omnium  doctorum,  doctus 
eram  philosophice  intelligere  de  justicia  (ut  vocant)  formali  sen  activa,  qua 
Deus  est  Justus,  et  peccatores  mjustosque  punit. 

"  Ego  autem,  qui  me  utcunque  irreprehensibilis  monachus  vivebam,  sentirem  co- 
ram Deo  esse  peccatorem  inquietissima;  conscientiae,  nee  mea  satistactione  placatum 
considere  possem.  Non  amabam,  imo  odiebam  justum  et  punientem  peccato- 
res Deum;  tacit^que  si  non  blasphemiS.,  certe  ingenti  murmuratione  indignabar 
Deo,  dicens,  "  Q,uasi  vero  non  satis  sit  miseros  peccatores  et  aeternaliter  perditoa 
peccato  origiuali,  onini  genere  calamitatis  oppresses  esse  per  legem  decalogi, 
nisi  Deus  per  evangelium  dolorera  dolori  adderet;  et  etiam  per  evangelium  nobis 
justiciam  et  iram  suam  intentaret."  Furebam  ita  saeva  et  perturbati  conscien- 
tia." — Tom.  1.  Prefat.  sub  fine. 

8.  "  Si  praescivit  Deus,  Judam  fore  proditorem,  necessario  Judas  fiebat  proditor ; 
nee  erat  in  mauu  Judse  aut  uUius  creaturce,  aiiter  facere  aut  voluntatem  mu- 
tare."— Tom.  3.  p.  207.— b. 

9.  "  Sic  huniana  voluntas  in  medio  posita  est,  ceu  jumentum;  si  insederit  Deus, 
vult  et  vadit  quo  vult  Deus,  ut  Psalmus  dicit:  ''Factus  sum  sicut  jumentum,  et  ego 
semper  tecum."  Si  insederit  Satan,  vult  et  vadit  quo  vult  Satan  ;  nee  est  in  ejus 
arbitrioad  utrum  sessorem  currere,aut  eum  qucerere;  sed  ipsisessores  certantobip- 
sum  obtinendum  et  po.ssidendum." — p.  177. — b. 


26 

The  quotation,  it  is  true,  refers  to  "  altars  and  images ;"  but  when 
altars  and  images  were  destroyed,  the  convents,  and  churches,  and 
cathedrals  shared  the  same  fate.* 

This  has  been  styled  the  age  of  illumination,  and  "the  march  of 
mind"  has  been  highly  celebrated  with  "  lo  pseans."  But  with  some 
persons,  mind  marches  with  leaden  heels.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Miller,  in 
his  old  age,  instead  of  the  divine  employment  of  preaching  "  peace 
and  good  will  to  man  on  earth,"  devotes  his  time  and  his  talents  to 
the  hideous  purpose  of  holding  his  unoffending  fellow-citizens  not 
merely  to  the  execration,  but  to  the  personal  violence  of  the  po- 
pulace; for  if  they  be  really  "enemies  of  God  and  man,"  and  re- 
quiring "  to  be  watched  as  highwaymen  and  assassins,"  they  ought 
to  be  exterminated.  The  Rev.  Mr  Brownlee  and  Dr.  Cox  write 
large  volumes  of  abuse  against  the  peaceable,  and  harmless,  and 
exemplary  Quakers,  whom  ihcy  will  not  allow  to  be  Christians, 
but  who  carry  into  operation  the  morality  of  the  gospel  as  com- 
pletely as  any  other  denomination  of  Christians  that  ever  existed. 
And  a  steady  warfare  is  carried  on  between  the  Presbyterians  and 
Episcopalians,  and  between  the  various  denominations  of  Presbyte- 
rians. To  cap  the  climax  of  "  the  march  of  mind,"  the  Earl  of 
Winchelsea,  in  the  English  House  of  Lords,  declaims  most  violently 
against  the  bill  for  removing  the  disabilities  of  the  Jews,  which  he 
calls  "  offering  an  insult  to  the  Almighty,"  and  tfie  bill  is  rejected 
in  that  house  by  a  considerable  majority! !  So  much  for  the  boasted 
19th  century. 


— ^»»>f  ^  ^  g>4^M^., 


To  guard  against  unmerited  censure,  it  may  be  proper  to  state  the 
object  I  had  in  view  in  the  production  of  this  pamphlet.  I  am  not 
the  assailant.  I  merely  repel  gross  and  outrageous  assault.  My 
object  has  been  to  prove  that  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  denominations 
of  Christians,  have  egregiously  erred  in  their  career,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  heat,  passion,  enthusiasm,  inordinate  and  mistaken  zeal, 
or  arrogant  reliance  on  their  own  opinions;  that,  of  course,  no  one 
has  a  chartered  privilege  to  assail  or  abuse  another;  that  they  ought 
to  practice  mutual  forgiveness,  and  cultivate  harmony  with  each  other 
according  to  the  sacred  injunctions  : — 

"  Agree  with  thine  adversary  quickly." — Matt.  5. 25.  "  Have  peace  one  with 
another." — Mark  ix.  50.  "  If  it  be  possible,  as  much  as  lieth  in  you  Uve  peaceably 
with  all  men." — Rom.  xii.  18. 

"  "Warrants  to  that  purpose  [destroying  altars,  &c.]  were  issued  to  the  Earls  of 
Arrane,  Arguile,  and  Glancarne,  the  Lord  James  Stewart,  &c;  Whereupon  follow- 
ed a  pitiful  devastation  of  churches  and  church  buildings  in  all  parts  of  the  realm; 
no  differenco  made,  but  all  religious  edifices  of  what  sort  soever,  were  either  terri- 
bly defaced,  or  utterly  ruinated." — Heylin's  history  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  143. 

"  Preachers  frequently  cried  out,  that  the  places  where  idols  had  been  worshipped, 
ought  by  the  law  of  God,  to  be  destroyed — that  the  sparing  of  them  was  the  re- 
serving of  things  execrable  ;  and  that  the  commandment  given  to  Israel  for  destroy- 
ing the  places  where  the  Canaanites  did  worship  their  false  Gods,  was  a  just  war- 
rant to  the  people  for  doing  the  like.  By  which  encouragements  the  n)adness  of 
the  people  was  transported  beyond  the  bounds  which  they  had  at  first  prescribed 
unto  it.  In  the  beginning  of  the  heats,  they  designed  only  the  destruction  of  Re- 
ligious Houses,  for  fear  the  Monks  and  Friars  might  otherwise  be  restored  in  time 
to  their  former  dwellings.  Eut  they  proceeded  to  the  demolishing  of  Cathedral 
Churches,  and  ended  in  the  ruin  of  parochial  also ;  the  chancels  whereof  were 
sure  to  be  levelled  in  all  places,  though  the  isles  and  bodies  of  them  might  be 
spared  in  some." — Ibid. 


^  27 

I  now  leave  the  case  to  the  impartial  judgment  of  an  enlightened 
community,  to  decide  between  their  Roman  Catholic  fellow- 
citizens,  AND  THE  Rev.  Samuel  Miller,  D.  D.,  Professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  and  Church  Government,  in  the  The- 
ological Seminary  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey.  We  desire  that 
they  should  judge  us,  as  honour  and  justice  demand,  and  as  all  other 
denominations  are  judged,  not  by  the  odious,  partial,  unjust,  and  en- 
venomed calumnies  of  our  deadly  and  inveterate  enemies;  but  by 
the  principles  taught  in  our  pulpits,  our  catechisms,  and  our  profes- 
sions of  faith, — and  by  the  uniform  tenor  of  our  lives,  in  all  the  so- 
cial relations,  whether  as  citizens,  as  fathers,  as  husbands,  as  bro- 
thers, or  as  sons — in  all  of  which  important  relations,  we  challenge 
comparison  with  the  most  self-justified,  ultra-zealots  among  our  viru- 
lent persecutors,  who,  in  the  plenitude  of  their  sanctimonious  pu- 
rity and  holiness,  pharisaically  desire  us  "to  stand  off,"  as  unfit  "  to 
touch  the  hem  of  their  garments" — and  presumptuously  denounce 
us  as  on  a  par  with  "  highwaymen  and  assassins,"  and  as  "  enemies  to 
God  and  Man.""  "  They  have  sharpened  their  tongues  like  a  serpent 
—adders^  poison  is  wider  their  lips." — Psalms  cxl.  3. 

A  CATHOLIC  LAYMAN, 

Philadelphia,  Oct.  1,  1834. 


APPENDIX. 


In  the  year  1788,  a  committee  of  the  English  Catholics  waited  on  Mr. 
Pitt,  respecting  their  application  for  a  repeal  of  the  Penal  Laws.  He  re- 
quested to  be  furnished  with  authentic  evidence  of  the  opinions  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  clergy  and  the  Roman  Catholic  universities  abroad,  "on  the 
existence  and  extent  of  the  Pope's  dispensing  power."  Three  questions 
were  accordingly  framed,  and  sent  to  the  Universities  of  Paris,  Louvain, 
Alcala,  Doway,  Salamanca,  and  Valadolid,  for  their  opinions.  The  questions 
proposed  to  them  were :  "  1.  Has  the  Pope  or  Cardinals,  or  any  body  of  men, 
or  any  individual  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  any  civil  authority,  power,  juris- 
diction, or  pre-eminence  whatsoever,  within  the  realm  of  England]  2.  Can 
the  Pope  or  Cardinals,  or  any  body  of  men,  or  any  individual  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  absolve  or  dispense  with  His  Majesty's  subjects  from  their  oaths 
of  allegiance,  upon  any  pretext  whatsoever  ?  3.  If  there  is  any  principle  in 
the  tenets  of  the  Catholic  Faith,  by  which  Catholics  are  justified  in  not  keep- 
ing faith  with  heretics,  or  ether  persons  differing  from  them  in  religious 
opinions,  in  any  transaction,  either  of  a  public  or  private  nature!" 

The  Universities  answered  unanimously:  "1.  That  the  Pope  or  Cardi- 
nals or  any  body  of  men,  or  any  individual  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  has  not 
any  civil  authority,  power,  jurisdiction,  or  pre-eminence  whatsoever,  within 
the  realm  of  England.  2.  That  the  Pope  or  Cardinals,  or  any  body  of  men, 
or  any  individual  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  cannot  absolve  or  dispense  His 
Majesty's  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance,  upon  any  pretext  whatso- 
ever. 3.  That  there  is  no  principle  in  the  tenets  of  the  Catholic  Faith,  by 
which  Catholics  are  justified  in  not  keeping  faith  with  heretics,  or  other  per- 
sons differing  from  them  in  religious  opinions,  in  any  transactions  either  of  a 
public  or  a  private  nature."  As  soon  as  the  opinions  of  the  foreign  Univer- 
sities were  received,  they  were  transmitted  to  Mr.  Pitt. 


28 


A  few  years  since  an  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
on  all  the  points  on  which  they  were  accused,  was  drawn  up  by  the  Bishops, 
the  vicars  apostolical,  and  their  coadjutors  in  Great  Britain.  It  extended  to 
eleven  articles,  of  which  I  annex  the  two  most  important,  not  having  space 
for  more.  It  was  signed  by  the  Roman  Catholic  nobility,  and  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  gentry,  some  of  whose  names  are  subjoined. 

"  On  keeping  faith  with  Heretics. 

"  Catholics  are  charged  with  holding  the  principle,  that  they  are  not  bound 
to  keep  faith  with  Heretics. 

"As  Catholics,  we  hold  and  we  declare,  that  all  Catholics  are  bound  by  the 
law  of  nature,  and  the  law  of  revealed  religion,  to  observe  the  duties  of 
fidelity  aud  justice  to  all  men,  without  any  exception  of  persons,  and  with- 
out any  distinction  of  nation  or  religion. 

"  British  Catholics  have  solemnly  sworn,  that  "  they  reject  and  detest  the 
unchristian  and  impious  principle,  that  faith  is  not  to  be  kept  with  heretics 
or  infidels." 

"  On  the  obligation  qf  an  Oath, 

"  Catholics  are  charged  v/ith  holding  that  they  are  not  bound  by  any 
oath,  and  that  the  Pope  can  dispense  them  from  all  the  oaths  they  may 
have  taken. 

"  We  cannot  sufficiently  express  our  astonishment  at  such  a  charge.  We 
hold  that  the  obligation  of  an  oath  is  most  sacred :  for  by  an  oath  man  calls 
the  Almighty  searcher  of  hearts  to  witness  the  sincerity  of  his  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  what  he  asserts ;  and  his  fidelity  in  performing  the  engagement 
he  makes.  Hence,  whosoever  swears  falsely,  or  violates  the  lawful  engage- 
ment he  has  confirmed  by  an  oath,  not  only  offends  against  truth,  or  justice, 
but  against  religion.     He  is  guilty  of  the  enormous  crime  of  perjury. 

"  No  power  in  any  Pope,  or  council,  or  in  any  individual  or  body  of  men, 
invested  with  authority  in  the  Catholic  church,  can  make  it  lawful  for  a 
Catholic  to  confirm  any  falsehood  by  an  oath ;  or  dispense  with  an  oath,  by 
which  a  Catholic  has  confirmed  his  duty  of  allegiance  to  his  sovereign,  or 
any  obligation  of  duty  or  justice  to  a  third  person.  He  who  takes  an  oath 
is  bound  to  observe  it,  in  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  words,  or  in  the  known 
meaning  of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  sworn. 

"The  Pope  can  never  grant  any  dispensation  to  the  injury  of  any  third 
person,  and  can  never  allow  any  one  to  do  what  is  unjust,  or  to  say  what  he 
knows  to  be  false,  whatever  advantage  might  be  expected  from  it.''^ 


Norfolk,  E.  M. 

Surrey. 

Shrewsbury. 

Kinnaird. 

Stourton. 

Petre. 

Stafford. 

Clifford. 
Charles  Stourton. 
H.  V.  Jerninghara. 
Hugh  Chas.  Clifford. 
E.  M,  Vavasour. 
Charles  Langdale. 
Philip  Stourton. 
Edward  Petre. 
Charles  Clifford. 
Wm.  Gerard,  Bart. 
H.  J.  Tichborne,  Bart. 
G.  Throckmorton,  Bart. 
Michael  Jones. 
Wm.  Witham. 
Justin  Fitzgerald. 
John  Stanton. 
Joseph  Ireland. 


Charle  Courtenay. 
Robert  Throckmorton. 
John  Gage. 

Joseph  Francis  Tempest. 
Thomas  Stapleton,  Jun. 
Charles  Butler. 
Charles  Eystou. 
Wui.  Blouiit. 
Edward  Doughty. 
Ra  Iph  Riddell. 
Edw.  W.  Riddell. 
Thomas  Riddell. 
Charles  Conolly. 
Henry  Robinson.  Jun. 
Edward  Blount,  Bart. 
Henry  Webl),  Bart. 
Richard  Bedingfeld,  Bart. 
Edward  Smythe,  Bart. 
Clifford  Constable,  Bart. 
Francis  Cholmeley. 
Henry  Howard,  of  Corby. 
Philip  HenryHoward. 
Charles  Tempest. 
John  Rosson. 


Michael  Joseph  Q,nin. 
George  Meynell. 
W.  K.  Amherst. 
Charles  Turvile. 
Jobn  Wright. 

Charles  Stonor,  Lieut.  Col. 
Wm.  Constable  Maxwell. 
Wiii.  Plovydeii. 
George  Silvertop. 
Heniy  Englefield. 
Marlow  Sidney. 
Peregrine  E.  Towneley. 
John  Jones. 
William  Jones. 
Richard  Huddleston. 
Thomas  Stapleton. 
Charles  Gregory  Fairfax. 
Robert  Berkeley,  Jun. 
John  Clavering,  of  Callaly. 
Thomas  Molyneux  Seel. 
Thomas  Fitzherbert. 
Robert  Selby. 
Henry  Arundell. 
Edward  Blount. 


Date  Due 

'K 

■-■  ■  •       j-jf. 

f) 

BW2447  .P4A2 

Address  to  the  public  on  religious 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


